Nora Real Food wants to reinvent the lunch menu in the company. Convinced that traditional canteen food is no longer attractive to the new generations, the Barcelona company offers a varied menu of healthy, fresh food without additives.
"Probably we are not the cheapest option for the client, just the opposite, but we are convinced that it is worth a higher price to obtain a higher quality," says Nora Vallcorba, co-founder of the business with her mother Nora Barata and Albert Soler. .
The company began its activity in 2018 as a result of a final degree project by Vallcorba, who graduated in Business Administration and Management at Esade. "I realized that there was this need in the business catering sector and at the same time I wanted to fulfill the dream of my mother, who always wanted to dedicate herself to professional cooking."
Nora Real Food started in 2018 but shortly after it suffered severely from the pandemic crisis. "With the confinement, the orders stopped coming in and we managed to survive with menus to hospitals," recalls the founder. In the midst of the crisis, the company managed to raise around half a million euros in a round led by friends and family. With this money, he was able to follow the market. Now Vallcorba relativizes that stage: “although the pandemic paralyzed a good part of the business, at the same time it accelerated the trend for healthy food. So in this sense, the covid crisis has benefited us ”.
The company ensures that this year, it will reach a turnover of 2.9 million euros, compared to 1.3 million in 2021 and 600,000 euros in 2020. "If we continue with this rate of growth, we will reach 4.5 million euros and we will enter profits next year”, celebrates the co-founder of the business, which employs 38 people.
All of the income comes from clients in Barcelona and its metropolitan area, although the company hopes to expand to the rest of Catalonia in the near future. Among its clientele are companies from the world of consulting, technology and pharmacy, such as Factorial, Wallapop, Europastry, Osborne Clarke or Ferrer.
The operation of Nora Real Food is based on cooking a variety of 28 dishes in the central kitchens located in the 22@ district and delivering them daily to the clients' offices. "We try to adapt to their needs and make payment methods and menu types more flexible," adds Vallcorba, who plans to diversify activity next year with the introduction of a new line of business.
